No More Happily Ever Afters

Bagehot observes that "only a third [of the British public] are certain to watch [the royal wedding] on television" and there will be far fewer street parties "than when Prince William’s parents wed in 1981":

What is going on? Most simply, experience has taught the British that to cheer a royal wedding today is to risk feeling a chump tomorrow. After decades of royal divorces and marital wars conducted by tabloid leak or tell-all book, sighing over a new princely union requires a Zsa Zsa Gabor-like leap of faith.